Measuring the Readiness of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises to Enter E-Commerce

Subject Areas : Industrial Management

Abbass Toloie Ashlaghi ¹ , Reza Radfar ² , Naghei Shoja ³ , Farshid Farokhizadeh ⁴

1 - Professor of Industrial Management, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2 - Technology Management, Faculty of Management and Economy, Azad University of Science and Research, Tehran, Iran
3 - Faculty of Basic Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Firuzkuh Branch, Tehran, Iran.
4 - Ph.D. Industrial Management, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Islamic Azad University, Roudehen Branch, Tehran, Iran.

Received: 2019-05-03 Accepted : 2019-06-22 Published : 2019-04-22

Keywords: System Dynamics, E-Readiness Assessment, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, E-Commerce,

Abstract :

Given the growing importance of small and medium-sized enterprises and the role that e-readiness and e-commerce development have in reducing their costs and expanding their operations, evaluating e-readiness status for entering e-commerce field is important in SMEs. Therefore, the design of e-readiness assessment models is appropriate to the internal and environmental conditions of organizations and communities with the aim of measuring their e-readiness level and without assessing the electronic readiness of the organization, the activity in the world of the impossible network or its barriers will be very high. In this paper, while introducing a brief overview of the proposed models for assessing e-readiness and their classification, the factors influencing the e-readiness of SMEs in order to enter the e-commerce field have been investigated and identified with a meta-integration approach. Then, in order to better understand the variables that affect this relationship and understand the existing dynamics, using a modeling of system dynamics approach and drawing causal loop diagrams (CLD), was introduced an e-readiness assessment model for SMEs to enter the e-commerce field and finally, simulation was carried out by Vensim software. The two major scenarios of increasing advertising and system quality were evaluated and analyzed as model levers. The simulation results indicate a positive impact of system quality and advertising on the e-readiness of firms, with the difference, the impact of system quality on e-readiness of firms is more than the impact of advertising on increasing e-readiness.

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